We discuss federal policy, whether there should be drone-specific privacy laws, and perhaps most importantly, ethics. Just because drone operators can take images legally, it doesn’t mean that one can ethically use those images.

The survey is 7-8 minutes long and can be taken here. People who take the survey will receive a free summary report of the research results (a $95 value) and can enter to win a free DJI Spark drone or one of two $100 Visa gift cards.

The survey seeks opinions about your experiences buying and using drones and is designed for those who have purchased drones, used drone software, offer drone service, or use drone services.

Results will be available in September, and you can guarantee we’ll share them right here on The Drone Girl!

The World of Drones Congress is coming to Brisbane, Australia this August, and the lineup looks brilliant. The conference is August 31 through September 2, with a bonus pre-Congress day of workshops on August 30.

The speaker lineup is the most diverse group of people I’ve seen at a conference yet, coming in from all over the globe and from a variety of industries. There’s Kathryn Cook, Facebook’s technical program manager for the Aquila drone project, DJI’s Director of Education Romeo Durscher, renowned conservationist Professor Lian Pin Koh and more.

There will also be panelists, including Flying Ag Australia owner Meg Kummerow, a leader in drones for agriculture who was named one of Queensland’s Top 20 under 40 the Red Cross’s Aarathi Krishnan, and yours truly, who will be talking about the global drone economy alongside DaVinci Institute futurist Thomas Frey and Silicon Valley Robotics managing director Andra Keay,

Beyond the workshops and panels, there will be other events, including a design a drone competition for students

The company today announced the DroneGuard Pro Inspired as well as five new DroneGuard packs and cases.

The $199.95 DroneGuard Pro Inspired is designed for the DJI Inspire 1 or Inspire II drones and features a top-loading hangar compartment as well as flexible dividers to house an Inspire, transmitter, 6 batteries, mini tablet and other small essentials.

In light of major changes at American Apparel — the former Drone Girl vendor, the Drone Girl has switched up its clothing brand.

All the logos and designs you know and love are still there — just on a different brand of shirt. The best news for you is my new vendor is a lower cost than American Apparel — and those savings are passed on to you!

To make the news even sweeter, I want you to try out the new merchandise, so — in addition to the new lower prices — I’m offering you 20% off the entire Drone Girl shop through the end of May. Use coupon code MAY20 to get the discount.

Next up in our “Ask Drone Girl” series is about drone manufacturing. If you have a question for Drone Girl, contact her here.

Do you think we will see Drones manufactured in the U.S.? There are many fine products on the market at this time but of course we feel a loyalty to our country! I own 5 drones so far !

-Pat

Hey Pat!

You bring up a very interesting point. While I would also love to buy American-made products to support U.S. businesses, the reality is, most of the drones in the world are not made in the U.S.

There have been a number of attempts at U.S. manufactured drones, but none have succeeded. “Solo” drone maker 3D Robotics was based in Berkeley, Calif, with a large office in San Diego, Calif. (its main manufacturing plant was just across the border in Tijuana, Mexico) but it has since transitioned away from manufacturing commercial drones after laying off a number of staff. San Mateo, Calif.-based GoPro also laid off employees after recalling its Karma drone because they were falling from the sky. Though, the Karma drone is back on the market. In January, the makers of San Francisco-based Lily, a widely-hyped drone that never actually made it to market, announced they were calling it quits and would refund those who made pre-orders.

The major companies that are left — DJI, Yuneec and Autel — are all Chinese companies, and many of the smaller drone companies are also mostly based outside of the U.S.

As thermal sensors become smaller, lighter, less expensive and more widely available on drones, more commercial drone applications are integrating aerial thermography.

Drones with thermal cameras are being used for inspecting HVAC units, wind turbines, cell towers, roofs, or finding missing people. And more drone companies are making it easy to incorporate thermal imaging in drones.

At the Consumer Electronics Show 2017, Autel announced a new camera for its X-Star, a FLIR Duo dual thermal and visual camera module, which can show thermal and standard, visual light images. It allows users to switch between the two in-flight, view both at the same time with picture-in-picture, or see a blended image of both, and will launch in the first quarter of 2017.

Yuneec also announced its H520, a six-rotor drone for commercial applications. One of its camera options is the CGO-ET dual thermal RGB camera.

But what are clients looking for in terms of data gathering? How do you handle post-processing of data? How can you build an aerial thermal imaging business? UAV Coach, which has had tremendous success in its FAA Part 107 course (I used it, and passed my own Part 107!), is now launching a course on Aerial Thermal Imaging for Drone Pilots.

The course primarily uses DJI products (ZenMuse XT Thermal Sensor and DJI Inspire) though of course there are plenty of other aircraft and sensor configurations. (The DJI Inspire and ZenMuse XT are widely used to capture accurate thermal data relatively easily and are representative of the capabilities of the majority of aerial thermography systems.)

It’s CES 2017 this week, and that means my inbox is full of new drone products being announced!

A lot of it is good stuff — stay tuned for some really exciting news later this week. But a lot of it is downright ridiculous — or worse — pitches itself as something it is not.

Keyshare Technology today announced the launch of their Kimon “selfie” drone in the US market. Its camera supports 4k/25fps video recording and at a price point of $399, seems reasonable for a consumer product. I look forward to reviewing it.

But here’s the sticking point: it calls itself “the first successful mass market selfie drone,” according to the press release screenshotted below.